Official BMW i3 thread

[Clippy]

It's April 1st, right?

http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/03/31/bmw-i3-bottom-line-494mo-money/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[spike09]

First saw the i3, two of them parked side by side actually, at ArtBasel earlier this year. I will be test driving the car at a dealer event on Wednesday. I wonder when the car will be available in South Florida, a major BMW market, considering the first 28K i3's are already reserved?

Went to the DRIVE THE FUTURE Test Drive event at Braman BMW today in downtown Miami. The event was low key. No signage outside of the dealership indicating there was an event. They could have at least put a BMW or I3 logo on the tent at the event!

There was one car parked in front of the entrance and about half a dozen available for test drives. There were a couple of DRIVE THE FUTURE displays by the signup table and the charging display was informative and full of logos. The crew was well versed on the car. At least they had on matching t-shirts with a small logo on them The crew inside the dealership had on shirts with more prominent graphics but still unforgettable. This event was just a test drive and nothing else. Unimpressive when I compare it to the Nissan LEAF launch events.


Anyways the test drive itself was nice. They pre-programed a route on the Nav system and let you go at it alone. Acceleration is great but I hate the abrupt stop and go response of their Regen braking! One pedal driving is not for me.

The front seats are roomy enough but the back seats are too narrow. I literally ripped open the seam of my pants getting into the back seat! Damn designer jeans! The start/stop button is blocked by the steering wheel and the shifter seems over-sized. The screen display just sits there in the middle of the front dash. I searched for nearby charging stations on the Nav screen and came up empty yet I know of two close by.

The car is as feature laden as you would expect for a BMW. Nice touches of wood and recycled materials. I liked the sun roof but that is not available in the US.

After the test drive there was a short questionnaire. My answer to the final question, "Would you consider buying this car?", was no. I know this car will do well among those who covet the BMW brand and I am glad for competition outside of compliance car states. I left out much of the positive aspects of the i3 but in the end I am still not willing to pay $45K+ even if I can get the car in time for summer.

 

[pbennett]

Its inability to use the US market CHadeMO level 3 chargers doesn't help. It feels a little odd to keep bashing the i3 but I was really excited about it initially, but now I just don't see it.

 

[jsongster]

The car can do CHAdeMO,,, but bimmer signed up with GM Satan Inc., the people killing company that wants to slow the uptake of pure electrics until their monolithic monster can catch up. So... they want the CCS Combo plug instead... the vapor plug that is slowing CHAdeMO installs and providing almost no actual charges to anyone for the next year.

Should be interesting to see how this affects sales... and how freaking long it takes GM ( almost none) , BMW (any yet, publically available other than Redwood city and San Diego ?) and VW dealers ( my guess is they will be best at this) to get combos up to the 600 installs that CHAdeMO are up to here in the US right now.

Here's hoping they are really interested in growing and not slowing the market.

 

[mkjayakumar]

I will wait for another year or so and pick up a high mileage base Tesla Model S 60, for the same price. I am guessing Model S with 75K miles on it would still have 160+ miles range would sell for around 45K.

 

[Valdemar]

I will wait for another year or so and pick up a high mileage base Tesla Model S 60, for the same price. I am guessing Model S with 75K miles on it would still have 160+ miles range would sell for around 45K.

A high-mileage Tesla may be nearing its warranty coverage, hopefully good extended warranties plans will be offered. I wouldn't take my chances with a car like Tesla w/o warranty, preferably backed up by the manufacturer.

 

[JeremyW]

A high-mileage BMW may be nearing its warranty coverage, hopefully good extended warranties plans will be offered. I wouldn't take my chances with a car like an i3 w/o warranty, preferably backed up by the manufacturer.

I know that all too well, previously owning a 318ti. :twisted:

All BEVs have super expensive electronic bits that could go bad "without warning" but the fundamental part (motor) should be good "practically forever" right?

 

[Valdemar]

A high-mileage BMW may be nearing its warranty coverage, hopefully good extended warranties plans will be offered. I wouldn't take my chances with a car like an i3 w/o warranty, preferably backed up by the manufacturer.

I know that all too well, previously owning a 318ti. :twisted:

All BEVs have super expensive electronic bits that could go bad "without warning" but the fundamental part (motor) should be good "practically forever" right?

That is true, but the argument was for buying a used Tesla vs. a new i3, hence my comment.

 

[mkjayakumar]

A super expensive golf cart on steroids with a great warranty from a great German manufacturer, is still a super expensive golf cart.

Don't get me wrong I am driving another version of golf cart now - my 2nd Leaf - and loving every bit of it only because it is super cheap to drive one. I am putting close to 18k miles a year and with the gas and electricity savings (my employer provides free L2 charging), I am practically driving this for around $100 a month - that is super cheap. Now make that $500 a month, even with gold plated wheels, it simply doesn't make sense.

Cars like i3 with sub 100 mile range on a good day and 60 mile range on a cold rainy day, that are super expensive simply bring more derision, cynicism, ridicule and make it harder for EV adoption.

 

[Valdemar]

Cars like i3 with sub 100 mile range on a good day and 60 mile range on a cold rainy day, that are super expensive simply bring more derision, cynicism, ridicule and make it harder for EV adoption.

So do cars with 250 mile real range that cost north of 100k.

 

[mkjayakumar]

Absolutely not. 250 miles is a very practical range for 100% of local driving on all conditions, and for long distance driving for all except very cold weather. Now it make sense to add frills and make it a luxury car and jack up the price. Essentially it can be your only car for many people.

A Leaf and an i3 simply *cannot* be your only car except for die hard EV fanatics (and I am close to one, I admit). Even in Dallas weather there are many cold days I simply cannot do a reliable 60mile commute even with a new battery.

The basic function of a car is to take you places around (to a reasonable extent) and get you home reliably every day, irrespective of the weather, traffic conditions etc.. Model S can do perform that basic function with ease. Leaf and i3 cannot.

 

[Valdemar]

Model S can do perform that basic function with ease.

For some.

 

[pkulak]

A Leaf and an i3 simply *cannot* be your only car except for die hard EV fanatics (and I am close to one, I admit).

You know there are people in this country with no car? Crazy, I know, but some cities aren't designed to require car ownership.

 

[TomMoloughney]

One of the readers on my i3 blog took his i3 REx on a long trip through The Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland. He summarized the trip and his thoughts on the i3 on an 1,100 mile trip in a guest blog post if anyone is interested:

http://bmwi3.blogspot.com/2014/04/bmw-i3-rex-european-road-trip.html

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Having to stop for gas every 75 miles on a road trip wouldn't be ideal, but it wouldn't be the end of the world for occasional trips.

Does the i3 have a "hold" mode like the newer volts? I would reverse the traditional thinking of switching to gas when the battery runs out. On longer trips with only a 2 gallon gas tank I would opt to keep the battery charge as my reserve in case I had trouble finding a gas station at the 75 mile mark, only using the electric for stop and go situations until I was within the remaining AER of my destination. In other words use the electric mostly at the end of the trip instead of the beginning.

 

[Boomer23]

Does the i3 have a "hold" mode like the newer volts?

In Europe, yes. In the US, no. BMW is trying to chase some arcane CARB low emission designation, so they don't want us Yanks turning on the range extender whenever we want to. It only comes on at very low SOC, automatically.

 

[GRA]

Does the i3 have a "hold" mode like the newer volts?

In Europe, yes. In the US, no. BMW is trying to chase some arcane CARB low emission designation, so they don't want us Yanks turning on the range extender whenever we want to. It only comes on at very low SOC, automatically.

And that's why it will fall short here. Since they aren't getting the white stickers and the green stickers are gone, they have to give people a hold mode, 'cause then at least you could consider taking it on shorter road trips that involve lots of climbing (like the Bay Area to Tahoe or Yosemite). Otherwise, it's too underpowered when running on the ICE with a depleted battery.

 

[TomT]

Yep, now that the whiter sticker experiment was a failure, might as well do a software upgrade and restore hold.

And that's why it will fall short here. Since they aren't getting the white stickers and the green stickers are gone, they have to give people a hold mode, 'cause then at least you could consider taking it on shorter road trips that involve lots of climbing (like the Bay Area to Tahoe or Yosemite). Otherwise, it's too underpowered when running on the ICE with a depleted battery.

 

[TomMoloughney]

Yep, now that the whiter sticker experiment was a failure, might as well do a software upgrade and restore hold.

And that's why it will fall short here. Since they aren't getting the white stickers and the green stickers are gone, they have to give people a hold mode, 'cause then at least you could consider taking it on shorter road trips that involve lots of climbing (like the Bay Area to Tahoe or Yosemite). Otherwise, it's too underpowered when running on the ICE with a depleted battery.

Tom, I agree if that was the case then BMW would likely do just that. All of the cars in Europe can do it so it would be no problem to have it here also. The problem is, this was never about getting a white sticker. No matter how much some journalists write that it won't make it true. BMW never expected the i3 to get a white sticker, no gasoline burning car does and BMW didn't disable the REx hold mode for white sticker consideration.

The whole reason they made the REx conform to the crazy restrictions (no hold mode, less gas range than electric, small gas tank, etc) was so it would be classified a BEVx, which it will be. By getting the BEVx designation, BMW gets the maximum amount of gold credits per vehicle, just as if it were pure electric. There are also advantages for the customer for being BEVx, like being sales tax exempt in states like Washington and New Jersey because the car is treated just as if it were full BEV.

I've tried to explain the white sticker situation for a while now and it seems the majority of people just "want" to believe BMW was trying to get a white sticker, but that just isn't the truth. Of course they would take it if CARB decided to be generous, but that is highly unlikely and BMW knows it.

 

[evnow]

I've tried to explain the white sticker situation for a while now and it seems the majority of people just "want" to believe BMW was trying to get a white sticker, but that just isn't the truth. Of course they would take it id CARB decided to be generous, but that is highly unlikely and BMW knows it.

Yes, people want to believe BMW is doing all this for customer benefit - not to get some credits.

I should say when white sticker story was floating around, BMW didn't attempt to correct that (atleast not that I know of). So, they were happy with the customer oriented white sticker story compared to back room credit story.